Sonible Smart:EQ3

[kurtvanzo]

I have to agree, the lack of profiles is a huge disappointment. I felt the same thing on EQ2 but figured they would add more with time, not charge me an upgrade for less. Come on guys!

 

[Jeremy Spencer]

I have to agree, the lack of profiles is a huge disappointment. I felt the same thing on EQ2 but figured they would add more with time, not charge me an upgrade for less. Come on guys!

Wow, that's it for the presets?

 

[MarcusD]

OK... Just fired up the laptop.

Something to try...

You can save and export your own profiles from Smart EQ2 and import them into Smart EQ3. Best thing to do, load up a session that's using smart EQ on your favourite sample libraries then save the profile for the instrument. After saving, click the settings cog and then export the profile. Bare in mind the audio needs to have been analysed prior to saving your profile, otherwise If you import it into SEQ3 it'll just be a blank line..

Only thing I've noticed is the profile isn't' exactly the same as what's come from SEQ2, but I'm assuming it's probably because the analyser does things differently.

 

[ProfoundSilence]

Yes thanks. I found an old support ticket and wrote them, plus contacted them on the website. The only response was That I can try “reregistering the keys”. Like I said, now I have to look for emails and keys and see if it works...

Thanks for the help Sonible! Not.

Update: of course I found every key except the one for SmartEQ2. I even found the email for the upgrade from smart EQ2 to smartEQ3 so they know I own it. But without the key email looks like I’m screwed.

I’ve emailed them back, but I don’t expect an answer. I really hate how these screwups are all on the customer.

Update2: so after a few hours of searching emails I’ve found the key under the cog in the smartEQ2 plugin, but it doesn’t copy/paste and the font is so strange that I can’t tell zeros from “O”’s or what half the digits are. Of course my many tries just brings up “key is invalid” in my account. I’ve contacted support with screenshots and details, but it seems to take them at least 24hrs to respond, so every email is another day of waiting....

What I don’t understand is their marketing department obviously knows I own it, I’m getting all the “upgrade your SmartEQ2 to smartEQ3!” Emails, but they can’t add it to my account without me finding the key and adding it myself?

What a crapfest.

Dude I just searched my email for sonible activation and found my old purchases and copy pasted in like 30 seconds - did you delete all your emails from when you bought it?

 

[ProfoundSilence]

In my short time playing with it, wasn't able to get anything spectacular out if it.

Lack of profiles for orchestral instruments as well as limited shared instance makes it kind of a dud for me.

Probably fun for rock mixing or something, you could try to put it in a bus but again - it's not doing anything that something like track spacer couldn't do at that point for orchestral work.

Ymmv, for me - Pro Q2/3 are still my go to's

 

[Emmanuel Rousseau]

I never really got the thing with the profiles to be honest... This is so dependant of the source. I always set them to Universal and tweak from there (or make my own profiles when I'm very happy with a sound).

Finished a track using Smart EQ 3 today and I'm really digging the new workflow. Creating EQ bands on the fly without having to decide if you're using EQ band 1 or EQ band 5 is imho a real step up. Feels more Pro-Qy

 

[Emmanuel Rousseau]

Have you tried using it while recording into Cubase? I'm curious to know if the latency issue is truly fixed. EQ2 was horrendous.

I will confirm that tomorrow for you, but I'm pretty sure it's zero latency. I didn't notice anything today, and I was mixing and playing/programming at the same time.

 

[SupremeFist]

Is the dynamic parameter new? I don't remember it being in v2. Just tried it on a rock mix as per one of the linked YouTube videos above and it's insanely useful. Like magic, really. I agree more profiles are needed for acoustic/orchestral stuff...

 

[FireGS]

I never really got the thing with the profiles to be honest... This is so dependant of the source. I always set them to Universal and tweak from there (or make my own profiles when I'm very happy with a sound).

Finished a track using Smart EQ 3 today and I'm really digging the new workflow. Creating EQ bands on the fly without having to decide if you're using EQ band 1 or EQ band 5 is imho a real step up. Feels more Pro-Qy

I'm with you.

You don't need profiles. All profiles are going to do is color your source sound in one direction or another. You can affect the source in the exact same way by using the built in "EQ" curves that say "process this area more" or "process this area less".

Can we agree that if they, for a wild example, made a "profile" for Modern Scoring Strings that it would probably not sound very good on, say, VSL instruments? Or a "VSL" profile on CSS?

 

[FireGS]

I think this may replace Gullfoss for me on some source types completely. The problem with Gullfoss (in relation to this) is that you can only set exclusion zones; "dont process under here" and "don't process over here" - but this plugin can actually do that PLUS adding/subtracting multiple zones to affect the sound, too.

 

[KarlHeinz]

and Mike’s take:

Second video from Mike was really kind of eye-opener for me and really recommended to get into it and general use.

 

[Gary Williamson]

Demoing it now on a 80 track VI orchestral piece, anybody else have this issue? it works great on Kontakt but every time I try it with an OT Sine player in the group it crashes. W10, S1 pro, latest version.
Edit. its crashing a Kontakt group now to. I have 3 groups running successfully, cannot get a 4th group going.

 

[Jeremy Spencer]

Demoing it now on a 80 track VI orchestral piece, anybody else have this issue? it works great on Kontakt but every time I try it with an OT Sine player in the group it crashes. W10, S1 pro, latest version.
Edit. its crashing a Kontakt group now to. I have 3 groups running successfully, cannot get a 4th group going.

Is there any latency if using it on a track when recording?

 

[Gary Williamson]

Is there any latency if using it on a track when recording?

Using it in the mixing phase, so, no idea

 

[ryst]

I'm really loving this new version so far. I have been mixing long enough that I usually make my own profiles. The lack of profiles doesn't bother me.

I've set up a couple new presets so that when I'm mixing film, for instance, I have a group for the dialog, ambience, sound fx, and music auxes with the dialog being on L1 and everything else L2 or L3. The Smart filter is set between 1-6k. I tested this on a previous short film I mixed and damn...I'm really liking what it does.

When I mix hip hop, most of my clients are sending 2 tack/vocal sessions. For those who don't know what that is, it's 1 stereo track of the music/beat, and individual vocal tracks. Again, using the groups is a great way to get the vocals to mix better to the stereo "beat" by just using the smart filter on the mid range of the music track.

Groups can also be great when you're mixing guitar driven rock and need the vocals to sit better in the mix without clashing too much with the guitars. This is a great update.

 

[FireGS]

Also love it. Just bought, no need to wait 30 days.

 

[SupremeFist]

. Again, using the groups is a great way to get the vocals to mix better to the stereo "beat" by just using the smart filter on the mid range of the music track.

That's interesting, so you're using it essentially like Trackspacer with the vocal as the sidechain applied to the two-track?

 

[ALittleNightMusic]

How does this compare to Soothe? That seems to be the industry “leader” and I’ve been trying to resist buying it.

 

[FireGS]

How does this compare to Soothe? That seems to be the industry “leader” and I’ve been trying to resist buying it.

I'll be honest, I tried the demo of Soothe2, and never really got results that sounded that great. Between this and Gullfoss (if you have it), I'd argue that the bases are covered (and in some ways, this is better than Gullfoss).

 

[SupremeFist]

How does this compare to Soothe? That seems to be the industry “leader” and I’ve been trying to resist buying it.

Soothe is a dynamic suppressor of problematic resonant frequencies and brilliant at that job; this is more of a general clarifier/enhancer (plus balancer across groups).